Briefly

GRENOBLE -- A bus carrying Polish Catholic pilgrims from a holy site in the French Alps plunged off a steep mountain road, crashed into a river bank and burst into flames Sunday, killing 26 people, authorities said.

Fourteen others were seriously injured in the wreck on a dangerous stretch of road where past bus accidents have killed dozens of people.

Local residents said the bus missed a 90-degree bend in the steep mountain road near the village of Vizille as it returned from the shrine of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette. The bus plowed through a barrier and plunged 65 feet onto the banks of the La Romanche River, catching fire on impact, firefighters said.

Pennsylvania

5 homicides in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA -- Five people were shot to death within six hours early Sunday, including three who were killed after an argument in a neighborhood bar, police said.

The deaths bring the number of killings in the city this year to 232, on pace to be the highest rate in a decade.

No suspects were arrested in any of Sunday's shootings.

Texas

State starts drying out

SAN ANTONIO -- The sun was finally out over South and Central Texas on Sunday after days of torrential rain that left an Amtrak train stranded, flooded roads and sent Boy Scouts on a camping trip fleeing the rising water.

As much as 17 inches of rain had fallen in some areas between 10 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, said Pat McDonald, a National Weather Service forecaster. Dozens of people were rescued, some by helicopter, but no serious injuries were reported in the state's latest round of flooding.

Maryland

Delays cause end to charges

ROCKVILLE -- Charges against a man accused of raping and repeatedly molesting a 7-year-old girl have been dropped because the court took too long to find an interpreter fluent in his native West African language.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Katherine D. Savage dismissed the nearly three-year-old case against Mahamu Kanneh, saying the delays had violated the Liberian immigrant's right to a speedy trial.

Prosecutors are considering whether to appeal the dismissal. They cannot refile the charges.

Snapshots

Group therapy doesn't prolong life, study says: Contradicting an old belief, new research released Sunday found that group therapy didn't prolong the lives of women with advanced cases of breast cancer.

The report in the journal Cancer found support groups improved patients' quality of life and had beneficial effects on mood and pain, but it undercut what had been seen as the greatest potential benefit.

200 stuck in arch: One of the two trams that take visitors to the top of the Gateway Arch was out of service Sunday after a power failure trapped about 200 people for hours inside the landmark the night before.

The Arch's deputy superintendent, Frank Mares, said a fuse blew Saturday night and stopped the trams.

The official Xinhua News Agency said there were no deaths reported. But more than 2,120 homes were destroyed or made too dangerous to live in, it said.

Japanese want plant inspected: U.N. nuclear experts should be invited to inspect a Japanese nuclear power station damaged in this week's earthquake to help restore public confidence, a top local official said Sunday.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant -- the world's largest in terms of capacity -- announced a barrage of leaks and malfunctions last week after Monday's magnitude 6.8 temblor, which killed 10 people and injured more than 1,000 in northwestern Japan.